Category Archives: Writing samples

Welcome back to yet another Wednesday and another WIPpet. As usual, I have a small ROW80 check-in to share with you as well.

ROW80

Though I’d chosen to pare down my goals last week to help prepare for the move we have to make next Spring, this week I managed to add a flurry of new creativity growing exercises, from drawing and poetry (not fit for human consumption yet, trust me). And my word counts are doing well. Most of the writing at the moment is zero draft level. When I type things in, then the stuff gets real.

Packing and cleaning is going “OK”. Not feeling inspired by this move. It needs to be done, but it’s change, and that never sets well for me, but there’s definitely a degree of mourning involved here as well. I’ve been feeling (and denying) it as best I could by staying “busy busy” since we decided his course. As the deadline encroaches on everything these days…. I’m just not there.

However, I am here, and it’s Wednesday. So here is your…

WIPpet

Throughout December, I will be sharing sections of Singer of the Swan Song, book 1A of the Swan Song Series. Last week, I shared a small opener to the story. This entry follows directly on that last one, with a small bit to lead in

So, please enjoy these three new paragraphs (1+2+1+2=6; 1+8=9; 9-6=3), and if you’d like to join in our friendly bloghop, check below for how:

“Quiet, girl,” Mama scolded. She extended a hand.

‘Tara reached out, happy that Mama had brought back the light. Then, from deep in the darkness behind the woman, came a loud bang. A rough, breathy whuff, like the monsters made followed, echoed and repeated from all directions beyond the archway. The last was nearer, almost to where Mama stood. Her fingertips barely touching Mama’s soft ones, ‘Tara drew back her hand hard. She couldn’t face several horned monsters in the dark, just her and Mama.

‘Listii had nearly died trying to protect her from just one of them. How could Mama and she survive so many in the dark?

Something poked her shoulder. She squeaked and jerked aside, her legs unable to move fast enough for her to get away from the grabbing claws that came at her in the dark. She felt herself start to fall and reached out again. “Mama!”

That’s it. Being a WIPpeteer is pretty easy. First, you have to write something (that’s the hardest bit) and then you have to post it to your blog on Wednesday, using what we call “WIPpet Maths”… which really means, fudge around with the numbers on the date until you come up with something that fits what you’d like to share.

Just a quick update for my ROW80 peeps. Been keeping up with my words with the lowest count for a day being 902 (today) and an average of 1300 a day. Wish I could say these were all story words, but I’ve started a lot of entries lately with “I don’t know what to write” until the brain gets sick of that and starts throwing me stuff. Sometimes I even trick my brain with silly bits where I’ll intentionally throw one of my characters into a fix they’d never get into on their own. The brain rebels and starts saying “NO, this is what would happen.”

It seems to be the only way to kickstart the brain these days. So many other things have demanded the mind.

With my husband’s work schedule shifting this month to facilitate a work-trip to Tennessee, we’re trying to figure out how to fit in house shopping time. The deadline for us to have a house down near Philly is March, which doesn’t leave a lot of time for inspections and closing. And of course, being winter, my head is desperately trying to go into hibernation state, not moving.

They say Thursday’s Child has far to go…

And onto the WIPpet… As I mentioned last week, I’ll be offering pieces from rewritten work in Singer of the Swan Song. Trying to make sense of the story and building up the sections of this piece of the Swan Song Series had been my main NaNoWriMo focus last month. Along with trying to fill in pieces of the rest of the series… If all goes well, I’ll be able to release the series within a short period, and hopefully will have managed to avoid too many continuity errors in doing so.

Well… we’ll see.

Today’s WIPpet starts right at the new opening I’ve been working on. That said, I’m not quite sure I’m on the right track here. So, I offer this piece, and those for the rest of this month, as a bit of an experiment. Hope y’all don’t mind being guinea pigs for a bit… (Feel free to point out anything that bothers or confuses you; I’d rather know now that when I hit send to an agent or publisher)

Five sentences for the 5th of December… sort of. There’s some fragments here, and I chose to add them together.

“But Mama!” ‘Tara hesitated before the dark maw of the stable entrance, unable to force her trembling legs to follow her mother into that bad place. She knew what hid in there, lying in wait in the dark. The screams, the hurts, the blood and tears…

Fire… the pain and fire burned throughout her head and body even now.

Out of the shadows, the small yellow glow of a rushlight hurried toward her, reflecting off her mother’s mantle and casting the woman’s shadow deeper into the darkness. “Quiet, girl,” her mother whispered, extending a hand.

I hope you found yourself intrigued by this opening. Let me know what did (or did not) appeal to you. And when you’re done, why not hop over to the WIPpet linky where you can discover some other wonderful writers. A happy shout out to Emily Wrayburn for hosting our friendly group.

Not much to post as far as my ROW80 progress this week. The holiday skewed me up some, and regular old character distractions… (they suddenly all seem to want to share stories with me that have nothing to do with the pieces I’ve tried to work on). I did get my NaNoWriMo win (will probably hit 60K for this month, but with so very much to just toss, I’m not sure it’s helped much).

House hunting is going along slowly. We finally have enough saved up for an adequate down-payment. So we’ll be placing an offer after this next run of showings. If only it didn’t seem like there was someone out there intentionally throwing monkey wrenches in the affair…

And now for the WIPpet

Today I have the last seven paragraphs of Marche/Promenade I’ll be sharing with you for a while (2-9=(-)7). It makes for a bit longer post, but this feels like a good stopping point. We’re still with Valichii, in the opening chapter of the story. As in previous weeks, the last line of the prior WIPpet is included in a different color at the opening of this entry.

“You’re late, Major. Head on up. The Katsdan wants you to liaise for him.”

Rather than argue that he was exactly on time—early even—, Val nodded to Hurla before he trotted the last few paces to the crown of the hill. Late, as much as any measure, depended on the enemy. Dare he take a moment to look around their vantage before greeting the two commanders? It wasn’t as if the pair of them actually needed his presence to pass messages between them at the moment. Would it be too much to hope he could serve more purpose than to stand by without any intel to offer? Especially when the first thing he would be asked when he arrived would be “what do you think?” if the past few weeks were anything to go by.

Best not. He didn’t want to be seen pausing, not now when both Army and Guard seemed to be convinced he was late to his post, and the commanders of both forces had turned to face him with barely concealed impatience.

Val stopped short Lan Kailiis’s mount and near-dove to kneel before the man. “Sir!” He considered, then tossed aside, the idea of apologizing for his delay. Even if Lan brought up the topic, they both knew apologies meant nothing to the men whose lives were dictated by careful timing.

Not having another reason for taking his time—he would have almost appreciated being called home now—, Val rose slowly, so he might see something of the landscape before the questions started.. For a second, he wondered why; it wasn’t like Mother to forget—unless she’d finally taken to heart all the times he’d told her she’d caught him in the middle of a life or death matter.

Not that Mother ever seemed to understand why the average soldier’s life mattered to him as much as his own…

As his raised his gaze to meet his commanders’, Val found his attention drawn to gathering of infantry men along the southern marches. Too close to the creek and marshes, by far. He faced his Katsdan directly. “Sir, if I may—.”

Lan Kailiis gave him a stare that would have been worthy of any of Val’s own kinsmen. “You may not, Major.” The man turned away to face his associate. “Your lieutenants have their orders, Torn?”

Next week I will be begin sharing excerpts of the opening for Singer of the Swan Song (book 1A of the Swan Song Series). Fixing the piece has been my NaNoWriMo project, and I intend to use my WIPpet posts to urge my continued progress on this rewrite.

Hope you have enjoyed this selection from only of my Works In Progress. If you’d like to see a few more, head over to the WIPpet linky and visit some our other awesome members. And thanks, of course to our hostess Emily Wrayburn.